Drawing on his own personal experiences dealing with network suits, Letterman dryly advised Abdul to be cautious. "One time, I tried that, I was coming up to the end of a contract, and I said, 'I don't know, maybe I won't come back,' and they said, 'Fine because we've got another guy ready to go'," cracked the 62 year-old late night host.

After taking a few good-natured swipes at her colleague nemesis Simon Cowell, Letterman turned the conversation to Abdul's relationship with her fellow co-host Kara DioGuardi. "Kara's great," Abdul told Letterman. "I don't understand why they do this to women; they love to pit women against each other. Maybe because it's sexier, I don't know. Maybe mud wrestling, the whole thing."